Dayveon

Director Amman Abbasi’s debut film and brutally honest coming-of-age story Dayveon (2017) follows the path of a teen boy’s summer in rural Arkansas as he falls in with a local gang and navigates the separation of family and gang life.

After the death of his older brother, thirteen-year-old Dayveon (played by Devin Blackmon) joins the Bloods, the same gang his brother had seemingly been a part of. He is almost immediately taken in by one of the older members, Mook (Lachoin Buckingham) and shown the ropes of gang life along with his friend Braydon (Kordell Johnson). The two boys move through young teenage freedom and the heavy reality of what being in a gang truly means as they become more involved with the Bloods. Dayveon’s sister’s boyfriend, Brian (Dontrell Bright), issues a sincere warning against gang activity to Dayveon, but he does not listen, feeling that being in this gang is the only way to keep the bond with his late brother. After a robbery goes badly and Brian finds out that Dayveon is still working with the gang, the two get into a fight. Dayveon reveals that he has decided he is done with the gang and has buried the pistol he had bought for himself.

Abbasi wrote the storyline for the movie after working with Arkansas filmmakers Brent and Craig Renaud on gang documentaries in Chicago. Wanting to connect his story to something more familiar, he chose to place his story in the same place where he grew up. Abbasi’s family lived in the Jonesboro (Craighead County) area until he was nine, when they moved to Little Rock (Pulaski County). The movie was mostly filmed in Wrightsville (Pulaski County).

Many reviews praise Dayveon’s honest portrayal of boyhood and the encroaching violence that sweeps up young men in rural areas, especially for African Americans. The film has also been praised for its color grading, which shows a visual contrast between scenes that feel nostalgic and light versus the more sinister and mature scenes. Abbasi chose to source most of the cast locally, desiring a more lived-in feel for the film instead of appealing to names that would usually attract a larger audience.

Dayveon premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2017, after being nominated for the Best of Next! Award. From there, the North American distribution rights were sold to FilmRise. Abbasi won the 2017 Cleveland Independent Film Festival award for the New Direction Competition. The film also received a total of seven other nominations and three wins from the Deauville Film Festival, Film Independent Spirit Awards, RiverRun International Film Festival, Americana Film Festival, Dallas International Film Festival, and Netia Off Camera International Festival for Independent Cinema.

For additional information:
“Dayveon.” Internet Movie Database. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6266218/ (accessed September 11, 2026).

Johnson, Jajuan. “A Q&A with Amman Abbasi.” Arkansas Times, August 23, 2018. https://arktimes.com/news/cover-stories/2018/08/23/a-qa-with-amman-abbasi (accessed September 11, 2026).

Koon, David. “Arkansas Filmmaker Abbasi’s ‘Dayveon’ Sells after Sundance Premiere.” Arkansas Times, January 27, 2017. https://arktimes.com/rock-candy/2017/01/27/arkansas-filmmaker-abbasis-dayveon-sells-after-sundance-premiere (accessed September 11, 2026).

Lodge, Guy. “Sundance Film Review: ‘Dayveon.’” Variety, January 20, 2017. http://variety.com/2017/film/festivals/dayveon-review-1201964530/ (accessed September 11, 2026).

Merchant, Piers. “First Time’s a Charm.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 27, 2017, pp. 1E, 3E. Online at http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/jan/27/weight-of-the-world-20170127/ (accessed September 11, 2026).

Samantha R. Lindstrom
Little Rock, Arkansas